The herbicide glufosinate is a non-selective, foliarly-applied herbicide considered to be one of the safest herbicides from a toxicological or environmental standpoint. Current commercial chemical synthesis methods for glufosinate yield a racemic mixture of L- and D-glufosinate (Duke et al. 2010 Toxins 2:1943-1962). However, L-glufosinate (also known as phosphinothricin or (S)-2-amino-4-(hydroxy(methyl)phosphonoyl)butanoic acid) is much more potent than D-glufosinate (Ruhland et al. (2002) Environ. Biosafety Res. 1:29-37).
Therefore, methods are needed to produce only or primarily the active, L-glufosinate form. Previously, cost effective methods to generate pure L-glufosinate, or a mixture of D- and L-glufosinate enriched for L-glufosinate, have not been available. Described herein are new and cost-effective methods for the production of L-glufosinate.